


5 times Jim Kirk showed everyone he was not just a pretty face.

by AriadnaL



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: 5 Things, Academy Era, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Smart James T. Kirk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25634119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriadnaL/pseuds/AriadnaL
Summary: The thing about Jim Kirk is that he never takes anything seriously, that's why everyone thinks he's just a pretty blond.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 21
Kudos: 393





	5 times Jim Kirk showed everyone he was not just a pretty face.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [How to beat a Vulcan at chess in 15 minutes or less](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4597275) by [AnAppleADay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnAppleADay/pseuds/AnAppleADay). 



> I used Google translate for the conversation with Uhura, if there's something wrong, please let me know.

The thing about Jim Kirk is that he never takes anything seriously.

Jim is actually at the top 10 of every single one of his classes in the command division at the academy, he had won some informatic tournaments before he learned how to ride a bike, he knows how to drive every single vehicle in Earth (from cars, motorcycles and bikes, to helicopters, planes and ships), he can play more instruments than some musicians, and he had a lot of survival experiences before reaching adulthood.

The interesting thing is that Jim has never taken it seriously. Society didn’t appreciate geniuses, he learned that early in his life. So, he tries not to draw attention to himself nowadays, and if people think he is just a stupid blonde, or that he could have anything because of his last name, well, that’s their opinion, and he didn’t ask for it.

  1. **A physic equation.**



It was Friday, Jim had just finished his last exam of the semester and he was promised to get wasted with Sulu, been able to drink everything they couldn’t during the end of the semester because, you know, responsibilities.

So, why was his friend still in his classroom this late?

“Hey, Sulu, what’s up?”

“I’m sorry Jim, Professor Walter’s exam is only one problem, but it is supposed to have three different answers depending on how you approach it... Even Chekov, the best of the class, has only been able to find one. Walter even let us consult notes, bibliography and our classmates, but no one has been able to find the other solutions” said Sulu, with depression clearly in his voice.

“Oh, can you get other’s help? I mean, can I see the problem?” asked Jim, uncertain.

“Of course, Jim, but you’re not even in the class, so, no problem if you can’t help” answered Sulu, not really hoping being able to go drinking tonight.

The blond studied the problem for a moment, then the answer everyone had already copy Chekov, and started to write something below of the page. If you use light as a wave or as a particle, you could reach two different solutions, one who they have already reach, the other one already forming on his mind, but it left one more… Could it be possible to use light as wave and as a particle at the same time on the equation? It is, after all, the duality of all quantum particles, he thought, just as he finished the second answer. After some minutes, he wrote, erased and rewrote numbers that occupied more than three pages, when he finally announced, “I got them”.

“What?” asked Sulu, perplexed.

“I got them, those are the other two solutions of the problems, I’m going to get ready now, I’ll see you at the bar in a couple of minutes, okay?”

“…Okay” said Sulu, not really paying attention, looking at Jim’s solutions. They were impeccable, how has no one thought to approach light differently and Jim, someone who wasn’t even in the advanced mechanics class, has been able to answer the final exam within a couple of minutes?

He was speechless, watching Jim leave the classroom with the same bewildered expression some of his classmates were giving his friend, and then someone asked him “Hey Sulu, who’s that pretty boy?”

Sulu frowned at the nickname, but he answered, “That’s my friend, Jim, and he’s not just a pretty face”, before copying the solutions himself and hurry to get a change of clothes for tonight.

  1. **Security problems**



As any other day, Jim kirk was taking a lecture, he wasn’t even paying attention, rather trying to get Bones’ attention. This is the only class they could take together this semester and today was Joana’s birthday, so, he was worried that his best friend could not be present for the 8th birthday of his daughter.

“Cadet kirk, cadet McCoy, is there something you wish to share with the class?”

Oops, he wasn’t as discrete as he has thought. “No, commander, nothing at all” answered Jim, with his golden smile.

“Well, then, maybe you two can make a better security system, right?”

“Uhh…” Well, at least now he knows the lecture is about the security of some data bases of the Academy.

“Since you never pay attention, perhaps you already know everything I explain, right?”

“Dammit, Jim” whispered Bones.

“Well, then, if neither of you can’t tell me how to break into the system, you two can leave the class for the rest of the semester”

“Wait, what?” asked Jim, incredulous, it was one thing to get himself in trouble, he could easily take the final exam and pass the class but getting Bones into trouble was something he would always avoid.

“You hear me, cadet, you had 10 minutes”

And well, he didn’t really have a choice, Bones would get mad, it would take days if not weeks to win his best friend forgiveness and they both would resent each other for a while.

So, he took his PADD, he ran one of his programs to detect vulnerabilities, he guessed some of the passwords, because even if people tried not to be obvious with their security, it was easy to decrypt them if you knew the beginning or the end of it (this professor had a very prominent fingerprint where the letter “A” was supposed to be in the standard keyboard of the PADD’s) and in less than 5 minutes he said “there, they are more than 50 vulnerabilities in your security system, the majority of them due to the users passwords” while he shared his screen with the class to made them able to see what he was referring to.

“I would make it obligatory for the users to have a complicate password, you know, with lower and upper cases, numbers, digits and other symbols, because even if someone can run a program to guessed them, it will take them longer and it would give your security system enough time to block them”. Said Jim, already aware of the looks his classmates were giving him and how every one of his words make the professor's eyes widen with shock.

Thankfully, it was already the end of the class, so he hadn’t need to make any more comments. He just collected his things and leave the class, planning to talk with Bones at lunch.

“Jesus, Jimbo, that was awesome. You should’ve seen everyone’s faces, they couldn’t believe you had just broken into the Academy security system with your PADD and proceed to make suggestions to the head of the security department, you seriously have to quit pretending you’re just a pretty face”

“Aww Bones, you think I’m pretty?” asked Jim with mischief, no longer worried about his friend sulky mood.

  1. **Body combat**



Jim kirk doesn’t take things seriously, but he’s also impulsive when his friends are involved. That’s the reason why, after seen some asshole beat Chekov at a combat class, he proceeded to challenge said asshole.

“Hey, moron, why do you only mess with the amateurs?”

“What?”

“You heard me, you can easily punch a beginner, but what about me?”

“You got it, pretty boy, but expect my punch in your face”

“Yeah, sure”

Jim has always been a troublemaker. Even when he shouted insults at his stepfather when said stepfather beat the shit out of him, even when some random bully tried to stole his lunch in elementary school, even when some creep didn’t understand what “no” means when he went out to dance, and obviously even when he was alone in a little colony, with half of the population sentenced to die and the other half already starving. That’s how he survived.

Yeah, Jim has been fighting all his life. He was aware that he couldn’t take a Vulcan or any other alien stronger than himself with mere intention, but he had been beaten during his life enough times to pick some moves here and there.

This dickface has made Chekov bleed during a friendly sparring, Jim was going to take this seriously, fuck the consequences.

It took three cadets, including Bones, to get Jim to stop punching shithead after he knock him down because the douche didn’t yield and started to insult Chekov again.

“Jim, that’s enough!” shouted Bones, making him stop his moves.

He looked around, bewildered of what he had done, already regretting showing such an animal part of himself. He could see what his classmates where thinking “Shit, is he human?”, “Have you seen anyone move like that?” “Is he seriously a first year?” “He could have caused a serious injury”

Then, between shocked classmates and an angry Bones, he saw him, Chekov was still bleeding, but he had seen all the combat, and was seeing Jim with such a grateful face that the blonde couldn’t stop his smile. Maybe he didn’t regret a thing.

  1. **Languages**



Jim Kirk has been in a lot of places during his short life (yeah, short, he was going to be the youngest Captain of Starfleet, after all). So, he knew how to speak in different languages and dialects, he just didn’t currently used them.

“Why do we need to take the same language each semester? Wouldn’t it be more useful if we could take a different one each semester or at least were able to take more than one?” asked Jim, frowning at the syllabus on his PADD

“Because even commanders should master one language or dialect, not just be able to distinguish between four of them. Also, taking more than one at the same time could affect your learning in both, Kirk” answered Uhura, already annoyed at him, only the communication division was able to freely switch between languages and were encourage to take more than one dialect at the semester because that was their specific job, everyone knew that.

“Well yeah, but like shouldn’t we be able to choose how much academic work we can take?”

“And what would you do then, Kirk? Register to three different languages?”

“Five, actually, I have already knowledge in some of them, I should be able to master them in some weeks, take the exam and choose another one, not take the same French class over and over again” Jim wasn’t showing off, he was genuinely bothered.

“What are you talking about? You wouldn’t be in the command division if you were able to speak five languages already”

“What? I mean, I can speak more than five languages, that’s exactly why I’m not in the communication division”

“Lying isn’t attractive, Kirk”

“J’suis pas un menteur, chérie" said Jim, confusing her a little.

« Alors, où et quand est-ce que tu as appris à parler une autre langue? » asked Uhura, without believing him yet.

« 子供の時から » answered Jim, shocking her again.

« 無理だよ » said Uhura, puzzled.

“¿Qué tengo que hacer para que me creas?” asked Jim, unaware of the cadets around them that were silent to listen to their conversation.

“No puedo creer que hables tantos idiomas y no estés en comunicaciones” Said Uhura, trying to make sense of Jim Kirk.

“Mi piace il comando migliore” Is all that answered Jim.

“quali altre lingue tu parli?” asked Uhura, now taking him seriously.

“Мне нравится общаться с чеховым” Said Jim, shrugging, before leaving a befuddled Uhura and a cafeteria of disconcerted cadets.

And well, if Jim was sometimes talking to Spock in Vulcan during their missions, Uhura has nothing to said about it. She knows better that anyone what it feels like to be called a brainless pretty face.

  1. **A chess match**



Christopher Pike knows that Jim didn’t like to prove himself a genius, he was used to pretend to be an average person since childhood, but Commander Christopher Pike was confident of Jim’s skills.

“10 a.m. tomorrow, recreational room 5. Be there or I will revoke your access to Science, engineering and any other classes you’re currently taking that aren’t in your syllabus."

That email was the only reason cadet James Tiberius Kirk was sitting on a sofa in rec room 5 on a Saturday morning with an annoying and familiar hangover. When he was rethinking all the decisions of his life, he saw Pike enter the room with an attractive young Vulcan who was wearing the designated black attire that distinguished him as a professor of the Academy.

“Oh perfect, you’re already here Kirk, I need you to beat Commander Spock in a chess match, and that’s an order, cadet"

Jim’s eyebrow rose at Pike’s words, but he only nodded once, “I can try”, he said, glancing at the Vulcan, the sooner they begin, the sooner they would end.

“Would you like to take the whites?” asked Spock while sitting in front of one of the chessboards of the room.

“Yeah, sure”

Jim was pleasurably surprised when he realized he needed to play seriously in order to win, he hadn’t played with someone as skilled as Spock before, but he had Pike’s order to win (Pike always knows when Jim didn’t take things seriously) and his opponent was actually logically predictable, so after a while, Jim finally said “check mate in three moves".

He was so invested in the game that he didn’t notice the small crowd of cadets that had gathered around them to see the game until some of them clapped and others whistled at Jim’s skills. He could hear some of the comments they make.

“Are you kidding me? Someone beat Commander Spock in chess? Is that possible?”

“Who the hell is that guy?”

“Do you think he cheated?”

“No dude, I saw the whole game, pretty boy is just that good”

“Impressive” said Spock, after a while, making Jim blush.

“Oh, it’s really not, I was just lucky” said Jim, trying no to draw more attention.

“Don’t be humble, Jim, you had just won me four thousand credits from the other admirals” said Pike, slapping his shoulder.

“Would you be amenable to play again, in the future? I want to study your method” asked the commander, suddenly.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, totally, I can give you my number and we can schedule another game, but I’m not really using a ‘method’ as you said”

“Interesting” said Spock, making the blonde blush again.

And that’s how Jim started to date the hot Vulcan of the academy (Pointy guy? hot mess? Handsome professor? Just choose one, Spock), even if said Vulcan has not been able to defeat him in chess.

**Author's Note:**

> The conversation with Uhura:  
> "I'm not a liar, darling"  
> "Then, where and when did you learn to speak another language?"  
> "Since I was a child"  
> "Impossible"  
> "What do I have to do for you to believe me?"  
> "I can't believe you can speak so many languages and you're not in communications"  
> "I like command better"  
> "What other languages do you speak?"  
> "I like talking to Chekov"


End file.
